(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an adjustable headgear support for use with protective headgear such as construction hard hats, fire fighter helmets, welding helmets and the like. In particular, the present invention pertains to a one-piece adjustable headgear support that is lightweight and therefore comfortable to the wearer, can be easily adjusted around the head of the wearer with just one hand, and is inexpensive to manufacture due to its one-piece construction.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Protective headgear, for example construction hard hats, welding helmets, fire fighter helmets and the like typically include headgear supports with headbands or head straps that are adjustable so that the headgear can be supported comfortably on any size head by the headband. However, in many prior art headgear supports the headband adjustment mechanism is difficult to operate and requires that the headgear be removed from the head in order to make adjustments in the size of the loop formed by the headband. To overcome this inconvenience, headgear headbands were designed that could be adjusted while worn on the head of the user. However, many prior art headgear headbands designed to be adjusted while worn on the head of the user would not reliably operate to both decrease the size of the loop formed by the headband and increase the size of the loop formed by the headband. In addition, some prior art designs that did operate reliably required a construction of several separate component parts. For example, some headgear headbands have manual knobs that are easily rotated by hand in opposite directions to increase or decrease the size of the loop formed by the headband. These multiple part designs increase the cost of manufacturing the adjustable headgear headband.
What is needed to overcome the disadvantages associated with protective headgear adjustable headbands is a headband construction that is inexpensive to manufacture, can be easily adjusted increasing its loop size or decreasing its loop size, and does not compromise the comfort of the user.
The headgear support of the invention overcomes disadvantages of prior art headgear supports by providing a headband that is of one-piece construction and includes an adjustment mechanism that can be operated by one hand of the headgear wearer. The headband of the headgear support has a length between opposite ends that is sufficiently large to wrap around the head of a user with the opposite ends overlapping. An adjustable cross-over band crosses over the top of the head of the user and is also formed as one piece with the headband. The headband is formed with a clasp at one of its ends and a series of catches at its opposite end, where individual catches can be engaged by the clasp to hold the headband in an adjusted loop configuration around the user""s head. A pair of finger abutments, one formed on the clasp and the other formed at the end of the series of catches, can be squeezed together by the thumb and forefinger of a user to pass the series of catches through the clasp when adjusting the size of the headband around the head of a user. The clasp is integrally connected to the headband by a pair of torsion arms on opposite sides of the clasp. The clasp has a pawl that engages with the series of catches on one side of the torsion arms and a finger tab on the opposite side of the torsion arms. By pressing inwardly on the finger tab the clasp is pivoting about the torsion arms causing the pawl to disengage from the catches, thereby enabling the loop configuration of the headband to be enlarged using just one hand.
All of the component parts of the headgear support are preferably molded of plastic and are integrally connected together giving the headgear support an inexpensive and simple to operate construction.